Virginia Tech campus closed as police hunt inmate suspected in 2 killings

Montgomery County Sheriff's Office deputy Cpl. Eric E. Sutphin was killed today during the search for an escaped inmate suspected in the fatal shooting of a hospital guard.

William Morva escaped Sunday from a hospital at about 2:30 a.m., after being taken to the emergency room by a sheriff's deputy, said Blacksburg police Lt. Joe Davis. Morva overpowered the deputy and took his pistol. Shots were fired, killing 26-year-old hospital security guard Derrick McFarland, as he tried to help the deputy.

BLACKSBURG, Va. - Virginia Tech shut down its campus Monday and ordered everyone to remain inside as authorities searched for an escaped inmate suspected of killing a hospital guard and a sheriff's deputy.

William Morva, 24, had been seen near the campus, authorities said.

Montgomery County Sheriff's Cpl. Eric E. Sutphin was closing in on the fugitive Monday morning along a trail off the university campus when he was fatally shot, the sheriff's department said.

Officials canceled Monday's first day of classes for the more than 25,000 students at Virginia Tech as a precaution.

"The suspect is armed, he has no problems with shooting. ... We don't need innocent people being around the area," Kurt Krause, a Virginia Tech vice president, told The Richmond Times-Dispatch.

Morva was described as wearing a tie-dyed T-shirt and khaki shorts. Police said he had shed his orange prison jumpsuit after the hospital shooting.

"The fact that the guy can blend in so well with campus students is kind of scary," said Josh Burnheimer, 20, a Virginia Tech junior from Ashburn, Va. "Everywhere you look there are police snipers on the roof."

Burnheimer said a helicopter hovered above the campus.

"I'm really surprised that they let us go to class after the officer was killed," he said. "I've never seen so many cops."

Morva, an inmate at Montgomery County Jail, had been taken from the jail to Montgomery Regional Hospital for treatment of a sprained leg and wrist.

He escaped early Sunday after overpowering a sheriff's deputy, taking the deputy's gun and then shooting the unarmed hospital security guard, authorities said. The hospital guard was identified as Derrick McFarland, 26. The deputy was in stable condition with injuries he suffered in the attack.

Morva had been jailed awaiting trial on charges of attempting to rob a store last year.

Authorities used dogs to sweep an area that included the university campus, about one block from the Blacksburg Police Station.

In 2004, Sutphin was among law enforcement officers in Virginia receiving a commonwealth medal of valor.

Sutphin was honored for his role in a May 9, 2003, incident in which he rammed the vehicle of suspect fleeing a fatal police shooting in Christiansburg. Sutphin exchanged gunfire with the suspect and was wounded in the exchange.

Sutphin was among three officers who eventually corner the suspect, killing him.

"Deputy Sutphin, though receiving two bullet wounds, displayed extraordinary personal bravery and uncommon valor at great personal risk to his life in the face of grave danger by continuing the pursuit of the assailant to successful conclusion, such actions being clearly above and beyond the call of duty," the state wrote in honoring Sutphin.